Lawsuit: UC has 'anti-male bias' in sexual assault cases

The University of Cincinnati is currently being sued by two students, on opposing sides, for how it handled the sexual assault investigation they were involved in.(Photo: The Enquirer/Meg Vogel)Buy Photo

The University of Cincinnati ignored evidence of innocence and unlawfully disciplined a male student who was accused of sexual assault in an encounter he said was consensual, according to a federal lawsuit.

The 69-page lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, also accuses the university of "gender bias" and "anti-male bias" in its handling of the case, which led to Tyler Gischel's expulsion last year. It says the university:

rejected much of the evidence that proved the woman, Jennifer Schoewe, "voluntarily consented to" sex.

prohibited Gischel from challenging the credibility of Schoewe or her witnesses.

discriminates against male students "to appease pressure from the federal government, UC's female student body and/or the general public to discipline male students."

“UC created an environment in which male students accused of sexual assault, such as Gischel," the lawsuit says, "are fundamentally denied due process as to be virtually assured of a finding of guilt.”

It adds that Gischel, who was 19 at the time of the August 2015 incident, was wrongly disciplined "for accepting Schoewe's offer to engage in sexual activity that Shoewe initiated and consented to, but apparently later regretted."

Gischel was indicted by a Hamilton County grand jury on a sexual battery charge, but the criminal case was dismissed in November 2016 after Schoewe refused to comply with a judge's order and give Gischel's attorney the password to her cellphone.

In an interview with The Enquirer published in January, Schoewe said the refusal was about her privacy. Giving the phone to Gischel's attorneys, she said, would put it "in the hands of people who meant me the most harm in the entire world.”

A UC police detective who investigated the incident, Bill Richey, refused to turn over his cellphone as part of an internal investigation into allegations he engaged in inappropriate relationships with women, including Schoewe, who were the subject of his sexual assault investigations.

Richey and Schoewe were suspected of being romantically involved – allegations that were not proven. They exchanged text messages regularly and Schoewe told friends that Richey was "in love with her," according to written statements from her friends.

He gave her a pendant inscribed with a Bible verse before her grand jury appearance.

Before a university hearing about the incident, Gischel submitted questions related to the alleged relationship, but the committee didn't ask them. The committee, the lawsuit says, also didn't allow Gischel to ask questions that would have shown "defects in her false allegations."

Schoewe said she was sexually assaulted while unconscious at Gischel's apartment after a party the night of Aug. 22, 2015. She reported that she believed she had been "drugged," although a toxicology report found no trace of drugs in her system, documents say. Both admitted drinking alcohol.

Shoewe said she woke up around noon the next day in her own bed with little memory of the night before and pain in her lower abdomen.

UC, the lawsuit says, implemented gender-biased policies and procedures for addressing sex assault complaints "to avoid continued internal pressure and negative publicity that (it) was not doing enough to support women who alleged they were sexually assaulted by male students."